Aslihan Keçebaşoğlu
Aslıhan Keçebaşoğlu was born in Ankara, Turkey on December 16th, 1994. At the age of 13, she began her formal musical education at the State Conservatory of Antalya. She studied the piano with Yuriy Sayutkin until the end of high school, from where she graduated as the top student of her class. In 2010, she came in third place in the national Chopin Competition held in Ankara. In 2012, she participated in the International Young Talents Music Competition in Stockholm, Sweden, where she obtained an honorable mention.
After her high school graduation in 2013, Aslıhan Keçebaşoğlu chose to continue her music studies in the discipline of composition. Consequently, she won a full scholarship for the Music Theory and Composition Program at the Bilkent University Faculty of Music and Performance, where she began her undergraduate studies under the guidance of Onur Türkmen.
In 2014, her piece ’Moments for Six Distinct Manners’, was premiered in the 6th New Music Days of Bilgi University by the German Garage Ensemble. The same piece led to the first international event in her composing career: she was invited to a series of concerts of young Turkish and German composers in Cologne in February 2016, where her piece was once again interpreted by the Garage Ensemble.
In 2015 and 2016, Aslıhan Keçebaşoğlu’s Duet for Viola and Piano and Trio for Flute, Cello and Piano’ were premiered at Sesin Yolculuğu’ composers’ festival at the Süreyya Opera House in Kadıköy, Istanbul in 2015 and 2016. Another piece by her, ‘Encounters’ was played by Hezarfen Ensemble at the same festival in 2017.
In January 2017, Aslıhan Keçebaşoğlu attended Bilkent Composition Academy conducted by Mark Andre. After a week of intense study with Mark Andre, her ensemble piece ‘Encounters’ was performed once more by Hezarfen Ensemble in the closing concert of Bilkent Composition Academy at the Bilkent Concert Hall.
Also in 2017, Bilkent Symphony Orchestra commissioned an orchestral piece from the young composer Her first orchestral piece ‘Introspection’ was premiered by the orchestra under the baton of Vladimir Ponkin on 3rd February 2018.
In 2018, one of her pieces titled “Sonbahar” composed for traditional Turkish music instruments, voice, violin and violoncello was performed and recorded by NK Ensemble, as well as published as part of an album titled Lahza.
Later in 2018, the New York based pianist Yael Weiss commissioned a solo piano piece for her distinctive commission project called ’32 Bright Clouds’. Keçebaşoğlu’s piece ‘Ninni’(lullaby) was performed among other places in New York (2019) and Texas (2020), and it will be performed in various concert venues in the U.S.A after the pandemic restrictions end.
In 2020, she attended the XII Creative Dialogue workshop, where she studied with Kaija Saariaho and Magnus Linberg, and collaborated with musicians from all around the world.
Also in 2020, she was chosen to be an active participant in the 4th Ticino Musica Young Composer Academy, where she studied with composer Oscar Bianchi and Francesca Verunelli, and also Quatuor Diotimo who performed her string quartet ‘Inertia’ at the closing concert of the academy.
She was also chosen as one of six composers amongst 69 participants to take part in ManiFeste 2020 Festival, which was postponed to June 2021 due to the coronavirus restrictions. At this festival, she will study with composer Isabel Mundry, and Keçebaşoğlu’s trio for violin, flute and piano will be performed by the musicians from Ensemble Intercontemporain.
In 2018, Aslıhan Keçebaşoğlu graduated from the Faculty of Music and Performing Arts in Bilkent University with magna cum laude. In 2019, she was admitted to the Master’s degree program in Composition at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland. where she studies with composer Veli-Matti Puumala.